Funding for Industry

Funding to support collaboration with UCC

Innovative industries and enterprises can take advantage of several funding mechanisms to support collaboration with UCC research community

The list below identifies some of the programmes available to work with us. Contact us to explore these opportunities further

Enterprise Ireland Innovation Vouchers Initiative: This was developed to build links between Ireland's public knowledge providers (i.e. higher education institutes, public research bodies) and small businesses. Innovation Vouchers worth €5,000 are available to assist a company or companies to explore a business opportunity or problem with a registered knowledge provider.

Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnerships Initiative: The Innovation Partnership Programme can help Irish and Irish based multinationals companies to access the latest skills and expertise from research institutes throughout Ireland. It provides up to 80% of the cost of research work to develop new and improved products, processes or services, or generate new knowledge and know-how. To understand how EI require IP to be managed we would recommend reviewing Enterprise Ireland mandated IP terms for this programme

SFI Industry Fellowship Programme: The purpose of the Industry Fellowship Programme is to enhance industry-academia collaborations through the funding of collaborative industry-academia research projects, and to stimulate excellence through knowledge exchange and training of engineers and scientists. The scheme provides for the temporary placement of academic researchers in industry, and of industry researchers in academia.

SFI Research Centres – Spokes: This programme is a vehicle to enable the addition of new industrial partners and projects to SFI Research Centres, so allowing the Centre to expand and develop in line with new priorities and opportunities. This will ensure that the Research Centre retains industrial relevance and enhance its sustainability.

European Union Horizon 2020 Framework Funding Programmes:Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

EI/IDA Technology Centres: In line with the its commitment to generating economic value from publicly-funded research, the Government has provided funding to establish industry-led Technology Centres. These centres are collaborative entities established and led by industry. They are resourced by highly qualified researchers associated with research institutions who are empowered to undertake market focussed strategic R&D for the benefit of industry. This is a joint initiative between Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland allowing Irish companies and multinationals to work together in these centres.

Knowledge Transfer Ireland has also created a useful portal for industry to help locate R&D funding opportunities. Click here to access